Fishing techniques are methods for catching fish. The term may also be applied to catching other aquatic animals such as molluscs (shellfish, squid, octopus) and edible marine invertebrates.
Fishing techniques include hand-gathering, spearfishing, netting, angling and trapping. Recreational, commercial and artisanal fishers use different techniques, and also, sometimes, the same techniques. Recreational fishers fish for pleasure or sport, while commercial fishers fish for profit. Artisanal fishers use traditional, low-tech methods, for survival in developing countries, and as a cultural heritage in other countries. Mostly, recreational fishers use angling methods and commercial fishers use netting methods.
There is an intricate link between various fishing techniques and knowledge about the fish and their behaviour including migration, foraging and habitat. The effective use of fishing techniques often depends on this additional knowledge.Keegan, William F (1986) The Optimal Foraging Analysis of Horticultural Production American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 88, No. 1., pp. 92-107. Which techniques are appropriate is dictated mainly by the target species and by its habitat.F.T.D. Website (2013) Fishing Tips and Techniques - Retrieved on 2013-24-07
Fishing techniques can be contrasted with fishing tackle. Fishing tackle refers to the physical equipment that is used when fishing, whereas fishing techniques refers to the manner in which the tackle is used when fishing.
Hand-gathering
It is possible to harvest many sea foods with minimal equipment by using the hands. Gathering seafood by hand can be as easy as picking shellfish or kelp up off the beach, or doing some digging for clams or crabs. The earliest evidence for shellfish gathering dates back to a 300,000-year-old site in France called Terra Amata. This is a hominid site as modern Homo sapiens did not appear in Europe until around 50,000 years ago.SzaboSzabo, Katherine Prehistoric Shellfish gathering.
Flounder tramping - Every August, the small Scottish village of Palnackie hosts the world flounder tramping championships where flounder are captured by stepping on them. Noodling: Practiced in the United States, mostly in the South. The noodler places his hand inside a catfish hole. If all goes as planned, the catfish swims forward and latches onto the noodler's hand, and can then be dragged out of the hole, albeit with risk of injury to the noodler.Snopes Urban Legend Website on Noodling Pearl divers - traditionally harvested oysters by free-diving to depths of thirty metres. Today, free-diving recreational fishers catch lobster and abalone by hand. Trout tickling - In the British Isles, the practice of catching trout by hand is known as trout tickling; it is an art mentioned several times in the plays of Shakespeare.
Spearfishing
Spearfishing is an ancient method of fishing conducted with an ordinary spear or a specialized variant such as a harpoon, trident, arrow or eel spear.Image of an eel spear .Spear fishing for eels . Some fishing spears use slings (or rubber loops) to propel the spear.
Bowfishing - uses a bow and arrow to kill fish in shallow water from above. Gigging - uses small trident type spears with long handles for gigging bullfrogs with a bright light at night, or for gigging suckers and other rough fish in shallow water. Gigging is popular in the American South and Midwest. Hawaiian slings - have a sling separate from the spear, in the manner of an underwater bow and arrow. Harpoons - A spearfishing technique that was widely used not just for river, pond, lake or stream fishing; it was used also for whaling in open oceans. Evidence has been found of harpoons made out of bone in Brazil that are 5000 years old that may have been used to go hunt whales from the Arctic. Pike pole fishing and gaff fishing - Use handheld poles with sharp spikes to hit and impale fish. Polespears - have a sling attached to the spear. Modern spearguns - traditional spearfishing is restricted to shallow waters, but the development of the speargun has made the method much more efficient. With practice, divers are able to hold their breath for up to four minutes and sometimes longer. Of course, a diver with underwater breathing equipment can dive for much longer periods. Tridents - are three-pronged spears. They are also called leisters or gigs. They are used for spear fishing and were formerly also a military weapon. They feature widely in early mythology and history.
Netting
Fishing nets are meshes usually formed by knotting a relatively thin thread. About 180 AD the Greek author Oppian wrote the Halieutica, a didactic poem about fishing. He described various means of fishing including the use of nets cast from boats, scoop nets held open by a hoop, and various traps "which work while their masters sleep".
Netting is the principal method of commercial fishing, though longlining, trolling, dredging and traps are also used.
Cast nets - are round nets with small weights distributed around the edge. They are also called throw nets. The net is cast or thrown by hand in such a manner that it spreads out on the water and sinks. Fish are caught as the net is hauled back in.Dunbar, Jeffery A (2001) Casting net NC Coastal fishing. Retrieved 25 August 2008. This simple device has been in use, with various modifications, for thousands of years. Drift nets - are nets which are not anchored. They are usually gillnets, and are commonly used in the coastal waters of many countries. Their use on the high seas is prohibited, but still occurs. Ghost nets - are nets that have been lost at sea. They can be a menace to marine life for many years. Gillnets - catch fish which try to pass through by snagging on the gill covers. Trapped, the fish can neither advance through the net nor retreat. Haaf nets - mainly used in the Solway Firth forming part of the border between England and Scotland. Brought to Great Britain by the Vikings a thousand years ago, the technique involves the fisherman wading out to deep waters with a large rectangular net and waiting for salmon to swim into it. The fish is then scooped up by the raising of the net. Hand nets - are small nets held open by a hoop. They have been used since antiquity. They are also called scoop nets, and are used for scooping up fish near the surface of the water. They may or may not have a handle–if they have a long handle they are called dip nets. When used by anglers to help land fish they are called landing nets.Fishing Tools - Landing Nets Because hand netting is not destructive to fish, hand nets are used for tag and release, or capturing aquarium fish. Lift nets - are a method of fishing using nets that are submerged to a certain depth and then lifted out of the water vertically. The nets can be flat or shaped like a bag, a rectangle, a pyramid, or a cone. Lift nets can be hand-operated, boat-operated, or shore-operated. They typically use bait or a light-source as a fish-attractor. Cheena vala - are shore operated lift nets from India. Huge mechanical contrivances hold out horizontal nets with diameters of twenty metres or more. The nets are dipped into the water and raised again, but otherwise cannot be moved. Its name means "Chinese fishing net", though it originates from Southeast Asia. Salambaw - a type of traditional raft or barge-operated large lift nets from the Philippines. It utilizes a tall upright pole or a tower structure (timba) around in height. At the top of the pole are two large curving spars crossed with each other. A large square net is attached to the ends of these spars. The pole acts as a crane, it can be tilted to submerge the net using a weighted lever mechanism. The operator either pushes or pulls the lever, or climbs on it to bring it down with their body weight, thus raising the pole. A variation of the salambaw operated from large outrigger boats is known as basnigan. Seine nets - are large fishing nets that can be arranged in different ways. In purse seining fishing the net hangs vertically in the water by attaching weights along the bottom edge and floats along the top. Danish seining is a method which has some similarities with trawling. A simple and commonly used fishing technique is beach seining, where the seine net is operated from the shore. Surrounding nets - Tangle nets - also known as tooth nets, are similar to gillnets except they have a smaller mesh size designed to catch fish by the teeth or upper jaw bone instead of by the gills.Selective Fishing Methods Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Retrieved 13 November 2011. Trawl nets - are large nets, conical in shape, designed to be towed in the sea or along the sea bottom. The trawl is pulled through the water by one or more boats, called trawlers. The activity of pulling the trawl through the water is called trawling.
Angling
Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" (fish hook). The hook is attached to a line, and is sometimes weighed down by a sinker so it sinks deeper in the water. This is the classic "hook, line and sinker" arrangement, used in angling since prehistoric times. The hook is usually dressed with lures or baits such as earthworm, doughball and bait fish.
Additional arrangements include the use of a fishing rod, which can be fitted with a reel, and functions as a delivery mechanism for casting the line. Other delivery methods for projecting the line include fishing kites and cannons, kontiki rafts and remote controlled devices. Floats can also be used to help set the line or function as bite indicators. The hook can be dressed with lures or bait. Angling is the principal method of sport fishing, but commercial fisheries also use angling methods involving multiple hooks, such as longlining or commercial trolling.
Line fishing Line fishing is fishing with a fishing line, but not using rods. A fishing line is any cord made for fishing. Important parameters of a fishing line are its length, material, and weight (thicker, sturdier lines are more visible to fish). Factors that may determine what line an angler chooses for a given fishing environment include breaking strength, knot strength, UV resistance, castability, limpness, stretch, abrasion resistance, and visibility.
Modern fishing lines are usually made from artificial substances. The most common type is monofilament, made of a single strand. There are also braided fishing lines and thermally fused superlines.
Droplining - a dropline consists of a long fishing line set vertically down into the water, with a series of baited hooks. Droplines have a weight at the bottom and a float at the top. They are not usually as long as longlines and have fewer hooks. Handlining - is fishing with a single fishing line, baited with lures or bait fish, which is held in the hands. Handlining can be done from boats or from the shore. It is used mainly to catch groundfish and squid, but smaller pelagic fish can also be caught. Pahila - is a traditional method of shoreline trolling in the Philippines. It uniquely uses baited hooks tied to a laterally flattened float called palyaw shaped like a small outrigger boat, a catamaran, or a fish. A long line is attached to the float. It is set unto the water's edge and dragged by someone running or walking along the beach. The combination of the water resistance and the diagonal pull forces the float outwards into deeper waters, like a kite. Once it reaches its maximum line length, it moves rapidly parallel to the person pulling it along the beach. It is pulled back to the shore intermittently to check for catches. Pahila literally means "pulled". It is also called , , , , hilada, or , among other names, in other Philippine languages.